Pearls, pith and provocation. Making meaning: The creative component in qualitative research

Findings in qualitative research are often wondrous and exciting, expounding new knowl-edge and perceptions previously unknown. Qualitative research requires the researcher to ponder and reflect on the data collected so as to find the meaning within. Helping researchers learn how to perform this step is not well discussed in the qualitative literature, yet this is one of the more crucial components of this type of research. In this article, the incubation, the meaning-making phase of qualitative research, is discussed in relation to the experiences of five researchers who have used traditional processes, models, metaphors, plays, pastiche, poetry, and quilt making and design to help them make meaning. There is magic within the method of qualitative data analysis. Literature dem-onstrates the difference between factually reported, dry results and the insight that occurs in elegant qualitative studies, but little is written about how this ele-gance occurs. Morse (1994) said it involved a creative leap, incorporating intuition and imagination, within an environment in which creativity is able to flourish. Sandelowski (1994) believed such a leap should also include a sense of playfulness, with the whole experience often being inchoate and incommunicable. There is a growing consensus that understanding or using a prescribed method of analysis i